scholarly journals Sex role similarity and sexual selection predict male and female song elaboration and dimorphism in fairy‐wrens

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karan J. Odom ◽  
Kristal E. Cain ◽  
Michelle L. Hall ◽  
Naomi E. Langmore ◽  
Raoul A. Mulder ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Karan Odom ◽  
Kristal Cain ◽  
Michelle Hall ◽  
Naomi Langmore ◽  
Raoul Mulder ◽  
...  

Historically, bird song complexity was thought to evolve primarily through sexual selection on males, yet in many species both sexes sing. Previous research suggests competition for mates and resources during short, synchronous breeding seasons leads to more elaborate male songs at high latitudes. In contrast, we expect male-female song dimorphism and elaboration to be more similar at lower latitudes because longer breeding seasons and year-round territoriality yield similar social selection pressures in both sexes. However, studies seldom take both selective pressures and sexes into account. We examined song elaboration and sexual dimorphism in 15 populations of nine fairy-wren species (Maluridae), a Southern Hemisphere clade with female song. We compared song elaboration and sexual song dimorphism to latitude and life history variables tied to sexual and social selection pressures and sex roles. Our results suggest that song elaboration evolved in part due to sexual competition in males: male song variability was more positively correlated with temperate breeding and greater breeding synchrony than female song. We also found strong evidence that sex-role similarity contributed to male-female song similarity: male and female songs were shorter and more similar when parental care was more equal and when male survival was high. Contrary to Northern Hemisphere latitudinal patterns, songs were less dimorphic at higher, temperate latitudes. These results suggest that selection on song can be sex-specific, with male song elaboration favored in contexts coincident with sexual selection. However, selection pressures associated with sex-role similarity also appear to constrain sex specific song evolution and song dimorphism.


Author(s):  
Abraham P. Buunk ◽  
Gert Stulp ◽  
Wilmar B. Schaufeli

AbstractThis study among 725 male and 247 female police officers from The Netherlands examined the association between self-reported height and occupational rank from the perspective of sexual selection. Male and female police officers were taller than the average population. A larger percentage of women than of men was found in the lowest ranks, but in the leadership positions, there was a similar percentage of women as of men. Overall, but especially among women, height was linearly associated with occupational rank: the taller one was, the higher one’s rank. These effects were independent of educational level and age. The implications for evolutionary theorizing from the perspective of sexual selection on the effect of tallness on status and dominance among women are discussed.


1982 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-46
Author(s):  
Deane H. Shapiro ◽  
Johanna Shapiro ◽  
Roger N. Walsh ◽  
Dan Brown

This study assessed the impact of a 3-mo. meditation retreat on 15 respondents' self-perceived masculinity and femininity. As hypothesized, male and female subjects, who on pretest perceived themselves to be more stereotypically feminine than normative samples, on posttest reported a significant shift to even greater endorsement of feminine adjectives and less endorsement of masculine adjectives.


1978 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 955-962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy J. Bell ◽  
Kay Hibbs ◽  
Thomas Milholland

Male and female college students were presented with a photograph labeled as a 5-yr.-old boy or girl and heard statements attributed to the child. They then rated the child on sex-role traits and responded to open-ended questions about the child. The primary findings involved sex of child by sex of adult interactions on ratings of independence and leadership: in both cases, same-sex children were rated higher than opposite-sex children. There was also some evidence that women having high contact with children rated the child more extremely on opposite-sex traits than did those with little contact.


2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1813) ◽  
pp. 20200062
Author(s):  
Leigh W. Simmons ◽  
Geoff A. Parker ◽  
David J. Hosken

Studies of the yellow dungfly in the 1960s provided one of the first quantitative demonstrations of the costs and benefits associated with male and female reproductive behaviour. These studies advanced appreciation of sexual selection as a significant evolutionary mechanism and contributed to the 1970s paradigm shift toward individual selectionist thinking. Three behaviours in particular led to the realization that sexual selection can continue during and after mating: (i) female receptivity to remating, (ii) sperm displacement and (iii) post-copulatory mate guarding. These behaviours either generate, or are adaptations to sperm competition, cryptic female choice and sexual conflict. Here we review this body of work, and its contribution to the development of post-copulatory sexual selection theory. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fifty years of sperm competition’.


1979 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi B. McCormick

One-hundred and twenty male and 109 female unmarried college students participated in a questionnaire study of actual and expected male-female differences in the use of 10 strategies for having and avoiding sexual intercourse. As predicted, both men and women viewed strategies for having sex as used predominantly by males and strategies for avoiding sex as used predominantly by females. However, sex-role attitudes were unrelated to students' expectations of sexual encounters. Both traditional and profeminist students expected that strategies for having sex would be used predominantly by males and strategies for avoiding sex would be used predominantly by females. It appeared that students still stereotyped having sex as a male goal and avoiding sex as a female goal. Men and women were unexpectedly similar in their personal strategies for influencing a sexual encounter. Both men and women reported using more indirect strategies to have sex and more direct strategies to avoid having sex. These findings suggest that when men and women share the same goals (such as having or avoiding sex), expected differences between male and female influencing agents disappear


2009 ◽  
Vol 276 (1664) ◽  
pp. 1971-1980 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jordan Price ◽  
Scott M. Lanyon ◽  
Kevin E. Omland

Birds in which both sexes produce complex songs are thought to be more common in the tropics than in temperate areas, where typically only males sing. Yet the role of phylogeny in this apparent relationship between female song and latitude has never been examined. Here, we reconstruct evolutionary changes in female song and breeding latitude in the New World blackbirds (Icteridae), a family with both temperate and tropical representatives. We provide strong evidence that members of this group have moved repeatedly from tropical to temperate breeding ranges and, furthermore, that these range shifts were associated with losses of female song more often than expected by chance. This historical perspective suggests that male-biased song production in many temperate species is the result not of sexual selection for complex song in males but of selection against such songs in females. Our results provide new insights into the differences we see today between tropical and temperate songbirds, and suggest that the role of sexual selection in the evolution of bird song might not be as simple as we think.


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